They identify the fossil of a new mammal giant, the "big lion of Africa" ​​| ANTENA 3 TV

Experts in paleontology have identified a new giant mammal species that inhabited the Earth about 22 million years ago, the "simbakubwa kutokaafrika" or "big African lion" (translated from Swahili), thanks to a preserved fossil at the museum for years. National Nairobi.

As reported by National Geographic magazine in an article published Thursday, this new animal, despite its name, is not a big cat like lion. This is actually the oldest member discovered from a group of extinct mammals called hienodontids, which have some resemblance to hyenas although they are not linked either. The new species was carnivorous and was larger than a polar bear.

Paleontologists Matthew Borths and Nancy Stevens (both American universities) are responsible for the discovery. They asked the Nairobi National Museum for permission to revise a drawer of strange fossils without study, marked "hyenas".

There they found most of an animal jaw and pieces of the skeleton and skull, in addition to the teeth.

The fossils were extracted between 1978 and 1980 during an excavation in the Meswa Bridge area, in western Kenya. The discovery was published this week in the journal Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology & # 39; and could help solve the puzzles of the evolution and disappearance of the hienodontids.

These they occupied the top of the food chain in African ecosystems at the same time as the first monkeys and monkeys were developing. "Something has put (the 'kutokaafrika simbakubwa') on the brink of the abyss," Borths said, quoted by "National Geographic." "Things have changed too quickly, the population of predatory species has not responded quickly enough and these creatures have finally disappeared," added the researcher.

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